Let's take a moment to remember and appreciate his first record...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punky_Br%C3%BCster_%E2%80%93_Cooked_on_Phonics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punky_Br%C3%BCster_%E2%80%93_Cooked_on_Phonics)
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Punky Brüster – Cooked on Phonics is the debut studio album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend, originally released as Cooked on Phonics under the fictional band name Punky Brüster. It was released on Townsend's label, HevyDevy Records, on March 19, 1996. It is a metal/punk rock parody concept album written by Townsend. Cooked on Phonics tells the story of a fictitious death metal band "from South Central Poland" called Cryptic Coroner that sells out their metal look and sound to become a commercial punk rock band called Punky Brüster (the band's name being a pun on the 1980s U.S. television series Punky Brewster). At the end of the track "Larry's O," Townsend says the album took "A week-and-a-half to write, six days to record, 12 hours to mix."
This album started as a piss-take on the whole Green Day, Rancid era of 'pop-punk' that was popular at this time. It began as a joke between myself and Kev from Lawnmower Deth, (who was teching for The Wildhearts then) and began with the song 'Fake Punk'. When I got back to Vancouver, I jammed it out with Adrian, who contributed some cool lyrical ideas and voices… (of which he was never properly credited for…if it gets re-released he will be). Squid also played bass on a few songs and it took essentially a week in a friend’s basement to record. At one point, Century Media wanted to release it, but that fell through and we've only released it on the web. There's talk of making it public at which point we will revisit the art etc. I mixed it with Blair Calibaba at Mushroom studios.
Adrian at this point had joined Frontline Assembly and went on tour, so I enlisted my friend Bob Wagner to finish the drums. Fun record, the first 'concept album' I suppose I made (about a fictional metal band that changes their direction to make money). Was a spur of the moment idea that ended up being completed…(a trait of mine I admit I'm rather proud of).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HTjlt3tuDc